The Irish market charged higher, ignoring other European markets which headed lower as an easier start on Wall Street gave investors an excuse to lock in profits after recent record gains.

Markets in Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich and Stockholm, which reached record peaks during the morning, headed lower as Wall Street inched down in the opening minutes of US trade. The Dow was later bruised by a profit warning from chemical giant DuPont, which shocked the market when it announced that earnings would fall 15 per cent below last year's levels. DuPont blamed sudden weakness in its crop protection unit for the shortfall and lower oil prices.

Despite the uncertainty in overseas markets, Irish shares ended more than 1 per cent higher and within 32 points of the ISEQ's all-time high of 5,471.61, set on April 21st this year.

However, dealers said busy morning trade tailed off into the afternoon as the recent European advance faltered.

But dealers felt the weakness in continental markets could well prove short-lived. "We've had a good run and we're just seeing a bit of consolidation," one senior share dealer said. "The market might drift down a bit for the next couple of days, but I don't think the fundamentals have changed that much."

Yesterday's gains on the Irish market were fairly evenly divided between the general index, up 0.99 per cent on the day, and the financial index, which gained 1.13 per cent as AIB rose by 14p to £11.12, Bank of Ireland added 101/2p to £15.80 1/2 and Irish Permanent jumped by 40p to 950p in late trading.

However, Anglo Irish Bank, which announced it had purchased the asset management and private banking services of Credit Lyonnais Bank in Austria for £10.1 million, lagged behind the sector generally. The bank also announced the acquisition of a corporate foreign exchange client portfolio from Hambros Bank in London and the investment and trust business of Mees Pierson in the Isle of Man for a total consideration of around £100,000, but the share price closed 1p lower at 201p.

Dealers reported good two-way trade in CRH, which has been stuck in a very narrow range of late. The share price closed 4p lower at £10.51, while Smurfit also slipped slightly to end at 213p, down 2p on the day. Advancers among the industrial stocks included Jurys, up 10p to 660p, Kerry which gained 5p to 985p and Kingspan which added 10p to 310p.

Ryanair also had a good day, adding 35p to 570p, as shareholders at an extraordinary meeting approved the issue of the new shares as well as the proposed acquisition of aircraft.

Meanwhile, Fitzwilton was unchanged at 47p after Stoneworth Investment Limited the company being used by Dr Tony O'Reilly, Mr Peter Goulandris and Mr Lewis Glucksman to take Fitzwilton private announced it had received acceptances of its offer in respect of 82.5526 per cent of the company's ordinary shares.